An important pair of Queen Anne walnut compass-seat side chairs, Boston, Massachusetts circa 1760

the chair IV with seat I and chair III with seat III, inscribed Adm Moore.  The chairs appear to retain their original surface and upholstered slip seats with original flame stitch fabric.

Ginsburg & Levy, Inc., New York

Chair IV with seat I and chair III with seat III; marked Adm Moore; appears to retain their original surface and upholstered seats; Chair IV with the inside edge of seat lip slightly reshaped; knee returns on both renailed
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Extremely rare for retaining their original slip seats and flame stitch upholstery, these side chairs appear to stem from the same set as a side chair at Yale University that belonged to Reverend Edward Holyoke, president of Harvard College from 1737 to 1769 (see John Kirk, American Chairs, Queen Anne and Chippendale, New York, 1972, no. 101, p. 98). The chairs display the classic characteristics of Queen Anne style seating furniture made in Boston of a tall back with flat stiles, a yoke crest rail, balloon seat, plain cabriole front legs with pad feet, and block-and-turned stretchers.

Identical flame stitch upholstery and related uncarved cabriole legs and turned stretchers are found on a Newport easy chair in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art (see Morrison Heckscher, American Furniture in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1985, no. 72, pp. 122-4). The latter is one of the few examples of its form retaining its original stuffing and finish fabric. Inscribed "Gardner Junr / Newport May / 1758 / W," it was associated with a member of the Gardner family, perhaps Caleb Gardner (d. 1761), who was the father of Caleb Gardner (b. 1750) the upholsterer working in Newport and later Providence.

Other closely related chairs perhaps stemming from the same or a similar set include one at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston illustrated in Richard Randall, American Furniture in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1965, no. 134 and a pair of chairs with a history of descent in the Pierce family of Portsmouth, New Hampshire illustrated in Sack Brochure 3, no. 120. Another example of the form with ring turnings on the medial and rear stretchers is at Colonial Williamsburg and illustrated in Barry Greenlaw, New England Furniture at Williamsburg, Williamsburg, 1974, no. 47.